<p>I've been looking at a lot of topics that happen to be offered by both the engeering department and physical science at my school</p>
<p>some example topics:
electromagnetics/electrodynamics (EECS department) vs. E&M theory (physics department)
intro programming [about 2 quarters worth, nothing high level, just enough to get me off the ground] offered by the computer science department vs. the various engineering department's intro programming
stat mech/thermodynamics in physics/chem vs. mech E
would fluid dynamics be covered in an upper div classical mech course?</p>
<p>anyway, the point of the question is: generally speaking how do the two departments compare? ive tried asking various people, but most seem to only know what goes on in their department. they seem to walk out with the same knowledge.</p>
<p>BTW: im also posting this in the engr majors forum, so it may look familiar</p>
<p>I could give you a more definite answer after reading the course descriptions at your college, but I would expect the main differences between engineering programming and CS programming to be:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the choice of programming language: engineers frequently work with Matlab, Fortran, C or C++, while Intro CS classes are often taught in Java, C++ or Python.</p></li>
<li><p>the choice of topics: engineering programming might be more interested in numerical methods, while CS programming could be about anything under the sun. My intro CS programming class had us write a computer game as a final project, complete with graphics and sound.</p></li>
<li><p>the amount of theory: I know of several colleges which ask their students to write proofs in Intro CS (correctness of an algorithm). I can’t quite see that happening in an engineering programming class.</p></li>
</ul>